04 Mar Why You May Feel Too Guilty to Rest, and Why You Should Stop
via Inc.com by Damon Brown
As a coach, I’ve connected with so many entrepreneurs who are exhausted, burnt out, and feel too guilty to rest. And that was before the pandemic! As I share in my new book Build From Now, I didn’t want to tell people I took a nap that day while my new business was struggling. NPR and TED veteran Celeste Headlee’s new book Do Nothing addresses this conflict head-on.
On time management expert Laura Vanderkam’s Best of Both Worlds podcast, Headlee made a great point:
“I’m trying to decouple the idea of ‘laziness’ from ‘inactivity from work.’ They are not the same. If you think idleness is the same as laziness, it will give you feelings of guilt whenever you stop being active…the human brain doesn’t persist, it pulses.”
Three big lessons here:
Genius takes time
The biggest business iconoclasts of recent years — from Warren Buffett to Bill Gates to the late Steve Jobs — all carved out time to think. Warren Buffett taught Bill Gates not to overcrowd his schedule. Bill Gates takes at least a week out of the year to unplug and read books. Steve Jobs would take very long walks, sometimes to conduct meetings, sometimes to be quiet enough to think.
It’s why our biggest ideas hit us in the shower, while we are exercising, or during playtime with kids. As I’ve often written about, our brain continues to work on our challenges even when they aren’t top of mind. In fact, studies have found letting problems go gives the brain room to quietly work.
All of this requires scheduling time to stop…
… keep reading the full & original article HERE